I bought a guys business this spring. He was asking a reasonable price, but was more than I wanted to spend. So I offered to buy his mower for a fair price, and he agreed. Then I offered him two weeks mowing revenue for each customer that signed up with me, which also worked out. I ended up with 11 new customers.

I bought out a guy once, same deal. I negotiated all his equipment and gave him 2 weeks for his accounts that stayed with me for at least a month. Didn't lose any.